jeopardy

Etymology

From Middle English iuparti,^[1] borrowed from Old French jeu parti (“divided game, even game”),^[1][2] hence “uncertain chance, uncertainty”, originally a term of chess and similar games.^[1] The French phrase is from jeu “game”, from Latin iocus (“jest, game”), and parti, past participle of partir “to divide”, from Latin partīre (“to divide”).^[2][3] The change from -parti to -pardy was mainly phonetic, though possibly helped by association with French perdre “to lose”.^[1]

Recorded c. 1300 in the sense “a cunning plan, a stratagem”, and from the late 14th century as “danger, risk”.^[3] See also joke and party.^[4]

References

1. [1] [2] [3] [4] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. [1] [2] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. [1] [2] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org